1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to enzyme-surfactant ion pairs with high catalytic activity and solubility in organic solution. More specifically, the invention relates to the solubilization of hydrolases in organic solvents without reversed micelles, and to enzyme-catalyzed reactions such as peptide synthesis with aqueous-like activity.
2. Related Art
The longstanding desire to achieve catalysis in organic liquids has led to several approaches. Chymotrypsin can be extracted from acidic aqueous solutions into organic solvents at very low surfactant concentrations (e.g., &lt;2 mM) via ion-pairing of a surfactant with the protein. Paradkar and Dordick, Biotechnol. Bioeng. 1994, 43, 529 ("Paradkar & Dordick 1994"). It was shown in Paradkar & Dordick 1994 that an ion-paired complex of chymotrypsin and an anionic surfactant can be extracted into isooctane in the absence of reversed micelles. This led to the general suggestion that the CT-surfactant complexes may have direct application for preparing biocatalysts active and stable in homogeneous organic solutions.